Managing Life, Career, and Money in a Savvy Way!

Balancing Wants

It’s great reading posts form personal finance bloggers who are almost at financial independence or are already there in life. It’s so inspiring and motivating. BUT….then I remember my husband and I are only 25. We are just starting out in our careers and really life. Being in your mid 20s means you can’t always do everything at once. It’s all about slow and steady.

Despite all the frustrations in day to day life, I am extremely grateful for where I’m at in life. I’m with an amazing partner. We are happy and healthy. Heck, what can I say, I’m a dreamer!

I’m the planner in our relationship. I scheme, crunch the numbers, plan, and somehow make it happen. It’s a constant battle balancing goals, needs, and wants. There’s the short term (next five years) and there’s the long term (10 years from now), and super long term (20 years +). The dream is for us to be financially independent; so we’re establishing short term habits that will help us in the long term. There’s a reason I established automatic saving buckets. Yet I have a lot of wants for our house, and sometimes I wish I could do it all at once. So here are all MY wants.

– Master bathroom Renovation – Lately I really, really want a to redo our master bathroom. I imagine myself demoing the outdated vanity, gross shower tiles, and redoing it all. I know it’s not going to happen this year. But it doesn’t make me want it any less.

– Start/Finish out our backyard patio – I really wanted to make it happen this year, but we ran out of time during the spring. It was really rainy which limited our work outside, and we started working/ripping out the flower beds, which is a lot more work that anticipated. Texas summers are hot, so you can’t do much without melting. I did install a drip irrigation system around the house to help maintain the foundation. The backyard patio is probably going to be a project for next year. Over the winter, I will plan it all out the design with my mother-in-law. And figure out the budget. It’s all about the budget with me!!!

– New couch -We want a new couch. We got our couch when we first got married. It’s an awesome couch, but we love watching movies together, relaxing, and cuddling. And the couch does not make it comfortable. I’m saving up all our credit card rewards towards the couch purchase. I even created a savings fund bucket for our new couch. It’s going to happen in the next year. It might be next summer, but it’s going to happen because I have wanted a new couch since forever.

It’s a slow progress because we save up for all our purchases and projects and then, move forward with them. Maybe this post should be called postponing all my wants until next year and beyond!!!

The truth is we don’t need all my wants, that’s why they are wants. Our house is in livable condition, but it would be so awesome to have it more finished. Of course, this is all with balancing daily expenses, and life. So save, save, and save.

Well I’m getting sleepy so logging off now. Have a great weekend!

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13 comments

If I were you I would really consider taking out a loan to do all the things you want to do to your house right now! Most people will tell you that it would be irresponsible, but I will tell you from personal experience that it is worth it. A nice, comfortable home is priceless! We work so hard and “suffer” from saving and delaying gratification that it really makes no sense. I waited years before I did my backyard and home remodel and I have nothing but regrets about it. Sure we have money but I swear the suffering of living in the crappy house for 5 years saving up to make it nice was not worth it. The time lost is not worth the money saved. So take my advice and do up your house now and enjoy it now! Nothing more precious than time!

I totally understand what you mean. But I don’t like debt. We are building up our cash pile and eventually (within five years) we will tackle all projects. Plus, I really do like to tackle them on my own. I find renovations fun and challenging. I only delineated my house wants. There are so many more wants I want. Working towards them by stockpiling cash so we have money to spend.

I have to agree with StackingCash ^! I too have a fixer upper (remember my last comment) and although I have only 10 months in the house I already have a 100000 things I want to change: 1. main bath, 2.open first floor 3. 2nd floor addition 4.remodel kitchen 5. fix our yard 6. redo our steps. I recently took out a small loan from Prosper.com (not affiliated, just a fan now! lol) to consolidate like 6 small credit cards because so many different payments were driving me nuts! but I told myself once I pay this small loan if everything works out with them I may take out other loans for those projects I had in mind! you can never make up time but you can always make up money you know? plus I really hate our blue bathroom 😀

Savvy…Please don’t get sucked into the thought of taking out a loan for these wants. It is worth it to sacrifice, get your financial house in order first and then pay for things in cash. More loans equals opening yourself up to more risk. I’d rather reduce risk (debt) so when the storms hit I’ll be better able to manage through them (and thus sleep better at night).Brian@Luke1428 recently posted…How to Save One Thousand Dollars in a Month

Gotta chime in and say: Stick to your guns, ignore the advice to incur debt, and sleep well at night! It’s great that you’re focused on saving first and only spending once you have cash on hand. We’ve renovated plenty of rooms, and sure, it’s nice when they’re done. But it’s never so nice that it’s worth the stress of debt or worth derailing your financial plans. You’re doing the right thing by saving first, and maybe over time you’ll find that you don’t feel like you need to do so much renovation. A little paint and a few accessories can work wonders, and sure as heck cost a lot less than any real renovation!Our Next Life recently posted…Size Matters // Should We Downsize Our Home When We Retire?

I wouldn’t go into debt to get everything on the list (I’m also pretty debt averse), seems like you’d be overpaying for a master bath.

I would re-prioritize the couch to the top of the list. Couches are relatively inexpensive compared to everything else on the list and you probably would enjoy it the most, in terms of total hours. You know you’re already using the couch all the time and that it’s uncomfortable, so it seems like an easy first step to really upping your enjoyment.Jim recently posted…8 Money Saving Hacks for Southwest Airline Flyers

I’m with Jim…I don’t know if I would go into debt for those things. I’m not debt averse but I am when it’s for things that are much more in the “wants” category. If the bathroom doesn’t work or a part of the house was not really usable then yes, I’d take out a loan but not because I just found it “ugly.” We plan on making some changes to our place that we bought a year ago. Sure, it would have been nice to have it done earlier but I would hardly consider it “suffering.” The couch is an easy thing to cross off the list and is probably worth it since you said it’s uncomfortable and you enjoy watching movies with your husband often.Andrew@LivingRichCheaply recently posted…Life Insurance and Credit Card Debt Discussion with Co-Workers